UAB’s Steve Russ Using Bye Week To Prep For Army
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - September 24, 2025
Bye weeks are generally time to take a breath and work extra on self-evaluation. For UAB defensive coordinator Steve Russ, though, it’s a little different bye week with the triple option offense of Army coming to town after the break for the Blazers.
“We’re on to Army, unfortunately, with them being so different than everybody else,” Russ said.
After four weeks, UAB’s defense is at the bottom of the national rankings in nearly every significant category. Those rankings include 129th in total defense (482 yards per game), 128th in rushing defense (222.8 ypg), 109th in passing yards allowed (259.3) and 131st in scoring (41 points per game. Third down has been a problem for the UAB defense, which is 132nd in third down conversion defense (57.7 percent). Additionally, UAB is tied for 126th in first downs allowed (96) and 133rd in team passing efficiency.
Slow defensive starts have been a problem with opponents scoring points on 17 of 22 first half possessions. UAB has given up touchdowns on the first two possessions of, at the very least, every game. The only first quarter stop UAB has this season came on Tennessee’s third series this past Saturday when Pierre Royster intercepted a pass that was knocked high into the air by cornerback Tamarion Crumpley. UAB had more success in the second half of games with opponents scoring on 7 of 22 possessions.
Russ said there have been snapshots of positive things for his defense this season. There were just three missed tackles in the win over Akron, the Blazers also got a pair of late stops against the Zips and opponents have failed to score on 9 of 11 drives the past two games. But they need better consistency.
On bye week evaluation: “You know, we evaluate every week. We'll do a little more evaluation later this week after we get Army kind of started going. And then when (the players) take a break, we'll do more evaluating then. But really, we've got to be able to do better job tackling and we've got to be able to execute on third down much better than we have. So if you boiled things down, it would be overall execution, but especially on third down and then our tackling. Those two things have been the biggest culprits in my mind.”
On the process of fixing those things during the season: “You just keep working on it. You keep teaching and training and developing. I'm firmly one of those guys that believes you don't stay the same, you get better or you get worse. We're going to continue to work on tackling, put them in different situations, make sure that we're thudding up the right way because you can't take people to the ground during the week. But you continue to emphasize being in the right position, taking the right angles, using the right technique, etc. And then execution is execution on third down. We continue to emphasize it, making sure we're staying onsides. That's part of it. You know, we're jumping offsides way too much on third down. So, you know, I think that's where we start to try to make some hay. Continue to grow in the package, that's the execution part. Then continue to grow in fundamentals and techniques when it comes to tackling.”
On learning from good and bad: “You got to (emphasize both). I mean, you can't just (emphasize the negative), they'll tune you out. And, you know, when you look at the scoreboard, that's what you see, but you've got to be able to hunt the good. And sometimes it's harder to hunt the good than others. Sometimes it's there. As I've told you before, I think we've done some really good things, but it gets washed away when you either don't get off the field on third down or give up explosive plays. And a lot of the explosive plays have resulted from either execution or tackling. So we've got to be able to cut down on those, then it's easier to see some of the good. We haven't started fast enough either, you know, so we've got to be able to start faster, get a stop right off the bat. We've given up way too many first drive touchdowns and second drive touchdowns for that matter. So you got to hunt the good because you wanted them to see what it looks like and what they're capable of. I'm very bullish on this group because I see every day and I also see on the game film what these guys are capable of if we can consistently do it at a high level. That's just what we’ve done, we’re consistently not playing at a high level.”
On the slow starts by the defense: “It does (put a defense on its heels). Naturally it's momentum, right? Momentum is a real thing in sports. It just puts a premium on having a spirit of perseverance and finding a way to stick your claws in the ground and try to get a stop and then build from one stop to the next to the next. When we've gotten stops, we've been able to put stops together typically, if you look at our season. It's when we haven't been able to get a stop that we haven't been able to get the next stop. Again, that comes to momentum which I think is real. We've got to be able to take advantage of our opportunities on third down to get off the field. You take a look at it, there are ample opportunities on third down on most of our drives for us to be in advantageous situations.”
On the difficulty of devoloping defensively when playing distinctly different offensive systems early in the season: “It is (difficult), especially when you're trying to double down on what you're doing and get better at those execution things. Now fundamentals and techniques are fundamentals and techniques. Block destruction, tackling, taking great angles, you know, all the things that are nuances of football from a technical aspect of it. But from an execution aspect, when you're bouncing from package to package, it does make it a little challenging. But no excuses. You know, that's our league. I knew that when we came here, it's the most diverse league. Then our schedule with the triple option teams and then throwing Tennessee's style in and the different styles we'll see throughout the league with Air Raid and others. They all have different styles. There has to be some carryover. At the same time, you try to fall back on those fundamentals and techniques to get you through, but it is challenging. There's no doubt about that.”
On good things he’s seen from the defense: “You take a look at it (at times), all of a sudden we're off the field. All of a sudden we're playing good. The things that we're not doing well, all of a sudden you see us do well. You know, you see us tackle better. You see us get off the field on a 3rd-and-4 or 3rd-and-long. You see us limit explosive plays for good chunks of time. It's literally Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The things that you see that are really, not what we want, not our standard, all of a sudden will become our standard with just the flip of the switch. That's where the consistency of our execution, the consistency of our tackling, the consistency of our fundamentals really comes into play. In fact, if you're looking for one word, it's consistency.”